1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a gear train of an automatic transmission for a vehicle. More particularly, the present invention relates to an automatic transmission for a vehicle that is composed of four planetary gear sets with three clutches and two brakes, and realizes eight forward speeds.
2. Description of Related Art
A typical shift mechanism of an automatic transmission utilizes a combination of a plurality of planetary gear sets. A gear train of such an automatic transmission that includes the plurality of planetary gear sets changes rotating speed and torque received from a torque converter of the automatic transmission, and accordingly changes and transmits the changed torque to an output shaft.
It is well known that when a transmission realizes a greater number of shift speeds, speed ratios of the transmission can be more optimally designed and therefore a vehicle can have better fuel mileage and better performance. For that reason, an automatic transmission that enables more shift speeds is under constant investigation.
In addition, with the same number of speeds, features of a gear train such as durability, efficiency in power transmission, and size depend a lot on the layout of combined planetary gear sets. Therefore, designs for a combining structure of a gear train are also under constant investigation.
For a manual transmission, too many speeds cause a driver the inconvenience of excessive manual shifting. However, for an automatic transmission, a transmission control unit automatically executes shifting by controlling the operation of the gear train, and therefore more speeds usually implies more merits.
The information disclosed in this Background of the Invention section is only for enhancement of understanding of the general background of the invention and should not be taken as an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that this information forms the prior art already known to a person skilled in the art.